Brown calls on Shaheen to release emails to and from IRS, Lerner

CONCORD – Republican U.S. Senate candidate Scott Brown’s campaign is calling on Sen. Jeanne Shaheen to release all correspondence between her, her office and the IRS and former IRS official Lois Lerner.

Controversy over the IRS’s loss of about two years of Lerner emails continues in Congress this week. John Koskinen, the current IRS chief, is expected to continue testimony before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Monday evening.

With the U.S. Senate campaign ramping up, Brown’s campaign manager, Colin Reed, says the loss of Lerner’s email “raises more questions about the deliberate targeting of conservative groups for tax audits.” The campaign is asking for Shaheen emails between her, her office and the IRS and Lerner for the time period of the missing Lerner emails.
“We know that Senator Shaheen was one of the Democratic senators who wrote a letter asking the IRS to target organizations that were critical of her or the Democratic Party,” Reed said. “Given her involvement in this scandal, she has an obligation to assist the investigation by releasing all of her correspondence, records of meetings and phone contacts with the IRS during the 2009 through 2011 time period in question. Voters deserve to know that the IRS is not being used as a way to punish political enemies of Jeanne Shaheen, the Obama Administration or the Democratic Party.”

In February 2012, Shaheen was among seven Senators who signed a letter asking the IRS to investigate whether “groups designated as ‘social welfare’ organizations” under section 501 C (4) “are improperly engaged in a substantial or even a predominant amount of campaign activity.”

Republicans say the letter and other complaints by Democratic senators were targeted at conservative groups.

Earlier this month, a conservative group called the Center for Competitive Politics filed a complaint on the matter with the Senate Ethics Committee. Shaheen was among nine senators cited.

Last week the conservative Citizens for a Strong New Hampshire also called on Shaheen and Reps. Carol Shea-Porter and Ann Kuster to release emails between them and their offices and IRS officials.